M 


L.   ■ 


-•c-O 


THE  FALL  OF  HOCHELAQA. : 


A  STUDY  OF  POPULAR  TRADITION. 


BY 


HORATIO  HALE,  M.A.  (Harvard.),  F.R.S.  Canada, 

LATE   PRESIDBNT  OF  THE  AMERICAN   FOLK-LORE  SOCIETY. 


From  the  Journal  op  American   Folk-Lore, 

(^AMBRinoE,  Mass. 

1H9  +  . 


\j  ^       .  )  ^ 


;    V-  ■ 


V. 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

AMERICAN  FOLK-LORE. 

Vol.  VII.  — JANUARY-MARCH,  1894.  — No.  XXIV. 


THE  FALL  OF   HOCHELAGA: 

A   STUDY   OF   POPULAR   TRADITION. 

When,  in  the  early  autumn  of  1535,  the  intrepid  explorer,  Jacques 
Cartier,  with  his  l.'ttle  flotilla,  recalling  in  number  and  dimensions 
the  caravels  of  Columbus,  made  his  doubtful  and  hazardous  way  up 
the  great  stream  which  his  native  guides  knew  as  the  River  of 
Hochelaga,  but  which  he  renamed  the  St.  Lawrence,  he  found  the 
lands  through  which  he  passed  occupied  by  tribes  belonging  to  two 
distinct  ethnic  groups.  These  have  been  commonly  known  as  the 
Algonkin  (or  Algonquin)  and  the  Huron-Iroquois  families.  The 
latest  scientific  nomenclature  makes  them  the  Algonquian  and  Iro- 
quoian  stocks.  But,  for  the  purpose  of  the  present  paper,  it  seems 
advisable  to  retain  the  older  designations. 

From  his  guides,  who  were  two  Indians  of  the  Huron-Iroquois 
race,  that  had  accompanied  him  to  France  from  an  earlier  voyage  to 
the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf,  he  learned  that  the  regions  along  the  river, 
on  both  sides,  from  its  mouth  as  far  inland  apparently  as  their  know- 
ledge extended,  belonged,  according  to  the  native  notions,  to  three 
separate  provinces  or  ''lands"  {terres).  Nearest  the  gulf  was  the 
lanji  of  Saguenay,  deriving  its  name  from  the  great  tributary  stream 
which  unites  with  the  St.  Lawrence  about  a  hundred  miles  below 
Quebec.  This  territory  was  occupied,  then  as  subsequently,  by 
scattered  bands  of  the  Algonkin  stock.  Next  came  the  province  of 
'•  Canada  "  proper,  that  is  to  say,  the  land  of  the  "  Town,"  for  such 
is  the  well-known  meaning  of  Canada  in  the  Iroquoian  language  and 
all  the  allied  idioms.  This  town  was  Stadacon^  a  native  village 
which  stood  near  the  site  of  what  is  now  Quebec.  It  was  the  capi- 
tal or  chief  abode  of  Donnacona,  the  Great  Lord  {Agouhana)  of  the 
province.  He  himself,  as  his  title  indicates,  was  of  the  Huron-Iro- 
quois stock,  though  his  people  seem  to  have  been  in  part  of  the 
Algonkin  family.     But  he  and  they  were  alike  subject  to  a  much 


2  y otirnal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

mightier  ruler,  the  great  King  and  Lord  {Roy  ct  Seigneur)  of  Hoche- 

LAGA. 

This  densely  peopled  and  strongly  fortified  town,  which  occupied 
the  site  of  what  is  now  Montreal,  was  visited  by  Cartier,  who  has 
left  us  a  vivid  description  of  the  place  and  its  inhabitants.  The 
path  by  which  he  approached  it  from  the  river  led  through  a  beau- 
tiful plain,  shaded  at  first  by  a  forest  of  stately  oaks,  to  which  suc- 
ceeded large  and  well-cultivated  fields  of  maize.  In  the  midst  of 
these  plains,  rising  near  the  foot  of  a  lofty  eminence  which  Cartier 
named  the  "  Royal  Mount "  {Mont  Royal,  now  abridged  to  Montreal), 
the  civic  fortress  presented  the  towering  and  formidable  front  which 
caused  the  early  settlers  of  northern  New  York  to  give  to  the  sim- 
ilar strongholds  of  their  Iroquoian  neighbors  the  name  of  "  castles." 
The  inclosing  wall  was  composed  of  a  triple  row  of  tree-trunks, 
shaped  and  planted  as  palisades,  and  rising  to  the  height  of  two 
lances'  length.  The  middle  row  was  upright ;  the  inner  and  outer 
rows,  inclining  to  this,  were  crossed  at  the  top,  and  braced  by  hori- 
zontal beams,  thus  forming  galleries,  whence  missiles  could  be 
showered  upon  an  assailing  force.  Within  the  inclosure  were  fifty 
spacious  houses,  or  rather  barracks,  some  of  them  fifty  yards  long  by 
fifteen  in  width,  framed  of  wood,  and  covered  with  sheets  of  bark. 
Each  house,  divided  into  compartments,  was  the  abode  of  several 
families  ;  and  the  whole  population  probably  comprised  between  two 
and  three  thousand  persons.  But  this  number  did  not  really  indi- 
cate the  defensive  force  which  its  ruler  had  at  his  command.  The 
occupants  of  the  fortress  were  merely  a  local  garrison,  which  in 
case  of  need  could  soon  be  largely  recruited  from  the  neighboring 
country.  For  Hochelaga,  as  we  learn  from  Cartier,  was  the  capital 
of  a  considerable  empire,  embracing,  besides  the  "  Canadians  "  of 
Stadacon^,  "eight  or  nine  other  peoples  along  the  great  river." 

In  1543,  France,  disturbed  by  civil  commotions,  withdrew  from 
North  America,  and  all  efforts  at  exploration  were  intermitted.  For 
nearly  sixty  years  the  names  of  those  strange  northern  chiefdoms 
which  Cartier  had  disclosed  to  the  world  remained  unmentioned.  It 
was  not  until  1598  that  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche,  a  nobleman  of 
Brittany,  at  length  obtained  from  Henry  IV.  authority  to  resume 
the  colonization  of  New  France,  and  received  with  this  authority 
the  grandiloquent  title  of  "  Lieutenant-General  of  Canada,  Hoche- 
laga, Newfoundland,  Labrador,  and  the  countries  adjacent."  But 
five  years  later,  when  Champlain,  who  was  to  be  the  actual  founder, 
made  his  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  seat  of  his  future  colony, 
he  found,  to  his  surprise,  that  Hochelaga,  along  with  Stadacone  and 
its  other  subject  towns,  had  disappeared  entirely,  leaving  no  trace 
of   their  existence.     A  few  wandering  Algonkins  occupied,   but 


The  Fall  of  Hochclaga,  3 

hardly  pretended  to  possess,  the  country  which  had  been  the  seat  of 
this  lost  err  )ire.  They  and  their  Huron  allies  from  the  Georgian 
Bay  lived  in  a  state  of  constant  warfare  with  the  confederate  Iro- 
quoian  nations,  who  held  nearly  the  whole  southern  shore  of  the 
St,  Lawrence  and  Lake  Ontario,  and  kept  the  tribes  along  the 
northern  coast  of  that  river  and  lake  in  perpetual  alarm.  It  is  nat- 
ural to  inquire  what  had  become  of  the  great  Hochelagan  domin- 
ion, which  had  so  strangely  vanished,  and  had  been  replaced,  as  it 
seemed,  by  a  still  more  formidable  power  on  the  southern  side  of 
the  dividing  waters. 

This  is  a  question  with  which  many  historians,  from  Charlevoix 
to  Parkman,  have  dealt,  but  to  which  no  decisive  answer  has  thus 
far  been  returned.  It  is  evidently  a  question  of  no  small  impor- 
tance, historical  as  well  as  ethnological  ;  for  it  concerns  the  leading 
cause  of  the  failure  or  success  of  French  and  British  colonization 
in  America.  If,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  three  centuries,  we 
can  succeed  in  answering  it,  there  may  be  good  hope  of  solving 
hereafter  some  other  still  more  interesting  and  perplexing  problems, 
such,  for  example,  as  the  origin  and  fate  of  the  Mound-builders  and 
Cliff-dwellers,  and  the  source  and  development  of  Mexican  and 
Mayan  civilization. 

In  the  present  case  the  problem,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  compara- 
tively simple.  Unless  we  make  the  very  unlikely  supposition  that 
not  only  were  Hochelaga  and  its  subject  towns  totally  destroyed, 
but  their  populations  were  completely  exterminated,  there  are  only 
two  directions  in  which  we  can  reasonably  look  for  the  offspring  of 
these  populations.  The  survivors  either  withdrew  to  the  south  side 
of  their  great  river,  and  there  united  with,  or,  as  some  suppose, 
actually  became,  the  Iroquois  nations,  or  else  they  retired  to  the  west 
and  there  joined,  or,  as  some  think,  wholly  composed,  the  Huron 
tribes  whom  Champlain  found  near  the  Georgian  Bay.  The  ques- 
tion is  thus  narrowed  down  to  two  points  :  firstly,  to  which  of  these 
ancient  divisions  of  the  Huron- Iroquois  family  are  the  Hochelagan 
people  to  be  traced ;  and  secondly,  by  what  hostile  power  was  the 
overthrow  of  their  state  accomplished  } 

It  might  seem  that  the  evidence  of  language  alone  should  be  suf- 
ficient to  settle  the  first  of  these  points.  We  have  two  vocabularies 
left  us  by  Cartier,  containing  many  of  the  common  words  by  which 
the  affiliations  of  language  are  determined.  But  unfortunately  all 
that  they  enable  us  to  prove  is  that  the  people  of  Cartier's  "  Land 
and  Kingdom  of  Hochelaga  and  Canada"  spoke  a  dialect  of  the 
Huron-Iroquois  stock.  Every  attempt  to  find  a  specially  close  con- 
nection between  this  dialect  and  that  of  any  other  known  branch  of 
the  stock  has  thus  far  proved  a  failure.     The  imperfections  of  Car- 


4  yournal  of  American  Folk-Lore, 

tier's  orthography  and  the  changes  of  time  are  quite  sufficient  to 
account  for  this  result. 

In  the  absence  of  other  evidence,  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  that 
of  tradition.  It  is  only  of  late  years,  and  especially  since  folk-lore 
has  become  a  science,  and  is  studied  as  such  in  connection  with  its 
sister  science  of  comparative  philology,  that  the  value  of  this  evi- 
dence has  been  fully  understood.  In  the  present  case  it  has  been 
found  decisive.  Several  years  ago,  while  engaged  in  studying  the 
languages  and  history  of  the  Canadian  tribes,  I  visited  the  Wyan- 
dots  of  Anderdon,  on  the  Detroit  River,  the  last  feeble  remnant  of 
the  only  tribe  which  retained  in  Canada  the  speech  of  the  once 
famous  and  powerful  Huron  people.  This  ill-fated  people,  crushed 
by  the  Iroquois  in  the  desperate  struggle  of  which  Parkman,  in  his 
volume  on  "The  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  has  given  us  a  narra- 
tive of  singular  interest,  fled  at  first  to  the  far  west,  and  took  refuge 
for  a  time  among  their  Algonkin  friends,  the  Ojibways,  on  the 
shores  and  islands  of  Lakes  Michigan  and  Superior.  After  a  time, 
returning  gradually  eastward,  they  made  their  principal  abode  for  a 
term  on  the  island  of  Michilimackinac.  Thence,  at  a  later  day,  de- 
scending through  Lakes  Huron  and  St.  Clair,  they  took  possession 
of  the  fertile  plains  on  both  sides  of  the  Detroit  River,  where  the 
guns  of  Fort  Pontchartrain  and  the  presence  of  friendly  Algonkin 
bands  —  Oj  ibways,  Ottawas,  and  others  —  gave  them  hope  of  secu- 
rity against  their  persistent  Iroquois  enemies.  The  same  distin- 
guished historian,  in  his  "Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  has  described  the 
remarkable  predominance  which  the  intellectual  superiority  of  this 
people,  even  in  their  reduced  condition,  enabled  them  to  maintain 
over  the  surrounding  tribes. 

Finally,  about  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  the  majority  of 
the  Wyandots,  on  both  sides  of  the  Detroit  River,  decided  to  remove 
to  the  southwest,  under  the  auspices  of  the  American  government. 
There  in  the  Indian  Territory,  and,  singularly  enough,  on  a  tract 
directly  adjoining  the  abode  of  an  emigrant  band  of  their  ancient 
enemies,  the  Senecas,  they  have  found  what  they  may  well  hope  to 
be  a  final  refuge.  It  is  interesting  to  know,  as  an  evidence  of  their 
strongly  conservative  character,  that,  after  so  many  wanderings  and 
vicissitudes,  they  retain  their  ancient  civic  polity  with  so  much  vigor 
that  Major  Powell  has  been  enabled,  in  a  "  Study  of  Wyandot  Gov- 
ernment," to  reveal  fully  this  remarkable  system,  and  to  clear  up 
many  mysteries  which  the  intelligent  and  well-educated  Franciscan 
and  Jesuit  missionaries,  living  in  the  Huron  towns  nearly  three 
centuries  ago,  did  not  fully  comprehend. 

A  small  number  of  the  Wyandots,  not  exceeding  seventy,  but 
including  a  few  persons  of  superior  capacity,  clung  to  their  Canadian 


The  Fall  of  Hochelaga.  5 

homes,  and  remained  on  what  was  known  as  the  Anderdon  Reserve. 
From  them,  and  especially  from  their  chief,  an  elderly  man  of  noble 
presence  and  marked  intelligence,  much  information  concerning  the 
history,  customs,  and  beliefs  of  the  people  and  their  ancestors  was 
obtained.  The  chief  bore  in  English  the  name  of  Joseph  White, 
and  in  his  own  language  the  somewhat  singular  appellation  of  Man- 
dorong,  or  "  Unwilling."  The  name,  which  he  owed  to  the  fancy  of 
his  parents,  did  not  by  any  means  indicate  his  disposition,  which 
was  peculiarly  frank  and  genial.  He  assured  me  that  the  traditions 
of  his  people  represented  them  as  having  dwelt  originally  in  the 
east,  near  Quebec.  He  had  once  journeyed  as  far  as  that  city,  and 
had  then  visited  the  remnant  of  the  Hurons  at  Lorette.  These  had 
ceased  to  make  use  of  their  ancient  language  in  their  ordinary 
speech,  but  they  had  not  entirely  forgotten  it ;  and  they  still  retained 
the  primitive  traditions  of  their  race.  They  took  him,  he  said,  to  a 
mountain,  and  showed  him  the  opening  in  its  side  from  which  the 
progenitors  of  their  people  emerged,  when  they  first  "  came  out  of 
the  ground."  This  notion,  which  prevails  in  many  countries,  is 
commonly  held  to  be  a  childish  myth,  born  of  a  metaphor,  through 
which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  ancient  Athenians,  a  people  proclaim 
themselves  to  be  the  autochthones  of  a  country.  Further  inquiry, 
however,  has  led  to  the  opinion  that  the  expression,  with  the  result- 
ing myth,  has  had  in  many  cases  another  and  more  intelligible  origin. 
It  indicated  in  the  first  instance  simply  that  the  people  believed  their 
ancestors  to  have  come  "from  below,"  that  is,  "from  down-stream," 
or,  in  the  case  of  an  oceanic  tribe,  "from  the  leeward."  In  the  pres- 
ent case  it  probably  showed  that  the  Hurons  of  Quebec  believed 
their  progenitors  to  have  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  from  an  earlier 
abode  nearer  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

Among  other  informants  whom  I  consulted  in  my  successive  visits 
to  Anderdon  were  two  aged  men,  of  considerable  ability  and  some 
literary  attainments,  Alexander  Clarke,  the  government  interpreter, 
and  his  brother,  Peter  Dooyentate  Clarke.  They  were  sons  of  an 
English  officer  by  an  Indian  mother,  and  had  both  received  some 
schooling ;  but  they  had  spent  their  lives  among  the  Indians,  with 
whose  ideas,  customs,  and  legends  they  were  thoroughly  familiar. 
From  Peter  I  received  a  small  printed  book,  of  which  he  claimed  to 
be  the  author,  and  doubtless  with  truth,  though  he  had  evidently 
had  the  occasional  aid  of  a  more  practised  hand.  It  was  published 
in  1870,  by  Hunter,  Rose  &  Co.,  of  Toronto,  and  bore  the  title  of 
"Origin  and  Traditional  History  of  the  Wyandots,  and  Sketches 
of  Other  Indian  Tribes  of  North  America."  A  careful  perusal  and 
some  conversation  with  the  author  left  no  doubt  that  he  had  done 
his  best  to  give  a  fair  and  correct  report  of  the  beliefs  which  pre- 


6  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

vailed  among  his  people  respecting  the  events  of  their  troubled  his- 
tory. 

To  make  these  clear  it  should  be  explained  that  the  people  to 
whom  the  French  colonists  gave,  in  their  dialect,  the  nickname  of 
Hurons,  or  "  Shock-heads,"  from  their  mode  of  dressing  their  hair, 
were  known  among  themselves,  and  to  other  tribes  of  the  same  race, 
as  the  "  Wandat,"  a  word  which  means  simply  "of  one  speech." 
This  name  was  corrupted  by  the  English  to  Wyandot,  and  has  now, 
except  in  literature  and  as  a  geographical  expression,  superseded 
the  more  euphonious  French  term.  The  modern  Wyandots  are 
mostly  descended  from  a  single  Huron  tribe,  the  only  one  which  re- 
tained its  organization  when  the  confederacy  was  broken  up  by  the 
Iroquois.  This  tribe,  which  originally  dwelt  apart  from  the  others, 
in  the  hilly  region  about  Nottawassaga  Bay,  was  known  to  its  allies 
and  to  the  French  as  the  Tionontates,  or  "People  beyond  the  Moun- 
tains," and  more  commonly  to  the  traders  as  "  the  Tobacco  Nation  " 
{Nation  du  Pclnn),  from  a  choice  variety  of  tobacco  which  they  cul- 
tivated and  sold.  They  had  still  another  name,  as  will  be  hereafter 
mentioned.  In  various  respects  these  Tionontates  bore  to  the  other 
Huron  tribes  the  same  relation  which  the  Caniengas  (who  are  com- 
monly known  by  the  nickname  of  Mohawks)  bore  to  their  fellow 
"  nations "  of  the  Iroquois  confederacy.  They  were  deemed  the 
oldest  in  lineage  and  the  highest  in  civil  rank.  Their  head-chief 
surpassed  in  dignity  all  other  chiefs.  Their  dialect  was  the  source 
from  which  the  dialects  of  all  the  other  tribes  of  their  branch  were 
derived.  This  linguistic  paternity  and  preeminence  of  the  Mohawk 
speech  among  the  Iroquois  dialects  had  been  already  made  clear  to 
me  by  a  careful  comparison  of  vocabularies  and  grammars.  My 
inquiries  on  the  Anderdon  Reserve  brought  out  equally  convincing 
evidence  of  the  fact  that  the  speech  of  the  Tionontates  was  the  old- 
est in  form,  not  only  of  the  Huron  dialects,  but  of  all  the  Huron- 
Iroquois  languages.  It  alone,  with  the  doubtful  exception  of  the 
Cherokee  (which  bears  marks  of  being  a  "  mixed  language "),  has 
retained  a  labial  articulation,  the  w,  which,  with  all  other  labials,  the 
remaining  idioms  of  that  stock  have  lost. 

Of  the  persistence  of  ancient  names  and  beliefs  in  this  Huron 
sept  I  found  remarkable  evidence  in  a  story  related  to  me  by  Chief 
Mandorong,  and  confirmed  in  a  singular  and  unexpected  manner 
from  various  other  quarters.  This  stoiy,  which  may  be  entitled 
"  The  Legend  of  King  Sastaretsi,"  is  given  in  my  note-book  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  In  very  ancient  times  the  Hurons  (or  Wandat)  had  a  great  king 
or  head-chief,  named  Sastaretsi.  They  were  then  living  in  the  far  east, 
near  Quebec,  where  their  forefathers  first  came  out  of  the  ground. 


The  Fall  of  Hochelaga,  7 

The  king  told  them  that  they  must  go  to  the  west,  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion, which  he  pointed  out.  He  warned  them,  moreover,  that  this 
would  not  be  the  end  of  their  wanderings.  He  instructed  them  that 
when  he  died  they  should  make  an  oa!en  image  resembling  him, 
should  clothe  it  in  his  attire,  and  place  it  upright  at  the  head  of  his 
grave,  looking  toward  the  sunrise.  When  the  sunlight  should  fall 
upon  it,  they  would  see  the  image  turn  and  look  in  the  direction  in 
which  they  wore  to  go. 

"  King  Sastarctsi  went  with  his  people  in  their  westward  journey 
as  far  as  Lake  Huron,  and  died  there.  But  he  had  time  before  his 
death  to  draw,  on  a  strip  of  birch  bark,  by  way  of  further  guidance, 
an  outline  of  the  course  which  they  were  to  pursue,  to  reach  the 
country  in  which  they  were  finally  to  dwell.  They  were  to  pass 
southward  down  Lake  Huron,  and  were  to  continue  on  until  they 
came  to  a  place  where  the  water  narrowed  to  a  river,  and  this  river 
then  turned  and  entered  another  great  lake. 

"  When  he  died  they  fulfilled  his  commands.  They  made  an  im- 
age of  oak,  exactly  resembling  their  dead  king,  clothed  it  in  his  dress 
of  deerskin,  adorned  the  head  with  plumes,  and  painted  the  face  like 
the  face  of  a  chief.  They  set  up  this  image  at  the  head  of  the  grave, 
planting  it  firmly  between  two  strong  pieces  of  timber,  its  face 
turned  to  the  east.  All  the  people  then  stood  silently  around  it  in 
the  early  dawn.  When  the  rays  of  the  rising  sun  shone  upon  it, 
they  saw  the  image  turn  with  such  power  that  the  strong  timbers 
between  which  it  was  planted  groaned  and  trembled  as  it  moved.  It 
stayed  at  length,  with  its  face  looking  to  the  south,  in  the  precise 
direction  in  which  the  chief  had  instructed  them  to  go.  Thus  his 
word  was  fulfilled,  and  any  hesitation  which  the  people  had  felt 
about  following  his  injunctions  was  removed. 

"  A  chosen  party,  comprising  about  a  dozen  of  their  best  warriors, 
was  first  sent  out  in  canoes,  with  the  birch-bark  map,  to  follow  its 
tracings  and  examine  the  country.  They  pursued  their  course  down 
Lake  Huron,  and  through  the  River  and  Lake  St.  Clair,  till  they 
came  to  where  the  stream  narrowed,  at  what  is  now  Detroit ;  then 
advancing  further  they  came,  after  a  brief  course,  to  the  broad  ex- 
panse of  Lake  Erie.  Returning  to  the  narrow  stream  at  Detroit, 
they  said  :  '  This  is  the  place  which  King  Sastaretsi  meant  to  be 
the  home  of  our  nation.'  Then  they  went  back  to  their  people, 
who,  on  hearing  their  report,  all  embarked  together  in  their  canoes 
and  passed  southward  down  the  lake,  and  finally  took  up  their  abode 
in  the  country  about  Detroit,  which  they  were  to  possess  as  long  as 
they  remained  a  nation.  The  image  of  King  Sastaretsi  was  left 
standing  by  his  grave  in  the  far  north,  and  perhaps  it  is  there  to  this 
day." 


■1  ■■ 


8  yournal  of  American  Folk-Lore, 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  narrative  "  Kin£  astaretsi "  is  de- 
scribed as  leading  tue  Hurons  in  their  migration  irom  the  east,  and 
IS  dying  just  before  their  return  from  the  northwest  to  the  vicinity 
of  Lake  Erie.  The  time  which  elapsed  between  these  two  events 
cannot  have  been  less  than  a  century.  This  portion  of  the  legend, 
at  first  perplexing,  is  explained  in  a  singular  and  unexpected  manner 
by  a  passage  in  the  well-known  work  ("New  Voyages  to  North 
America")  of  the  French  traveller.  Baron  La  Ronton,  whose  de- 
scriptions of  New  France  in  the  period  between  the  years  1683  and 
1694  contain  the  results  of  much  inquiry  and  acute  observation. 
"  The  leader  of  the  nation  of  Hurons,"  he  tells  us,  "  is  called  Sas- 
taretsi.  The  name,"  he  adds,  "has  been  kept  up  by  descent  for 
seven  or  eight  bund  ed  years,  and  is  likely  to  continue  to  future 
ages."  This  practice  of  keeping  up  the  name  of  a  chief  by  succes- 
sion seems  to  have  been  common  among  the  tribes  of  the  Huion- 
Iroquois  stock.  The  names  of  the  fifty  chiefs  who  formed  the  Iro- 
quois league  have  been  thus  presented  for  more  than  four  hundred 
years.  The  Sastaretsi  who  led  his  people  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Lake  Huron  was  the  predecessor  of  his  namesake  whose  dying 
injunctions  induced  them,  after  <"heir  overthrow  and  expulsion  by 
the  Iroquois,  to  take  refuge  about  the  French  forts  at  Detroit  and 
in  northern  Ohio. 

It  is  a  curious  and  noticeable  fact,  however,  that  neither  the  Iro- 
quois nor  the  French  are  mentioned  in  this  story,  nor  is  any  reason 
given  either  for  the  departure  of  the  Hurons  from  their  original 
home  near  Quebec,  nor  for  their  return  from  the  northwest  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Detroit.  The  pride  of  the  Indian  character  refused 
to  admit  that  their  wanderings  were  determined  by  any  power  be- 
yond their  own  will  and  the  influence  of  their  chief. 

The  story  of  the  image  is  probably  true  in  its  main  incidents, 
though  tradition  has  added  some  marvellous  details.  It  was  natural 
that  the  French,  after  they  had  established  their  forts  in  Michigan 
and  Ohio,  should  desire  to  have  the  aid  of  their  Indian  allies  in 
defending  them  against  the  Iroquois  and  the  English.  This  project 
would  involve  the  removal  of  the  Hurons  from  their  asylum  in  the 
far  north  to  the  perilous  vicinity  of  their  powerful  and  dreaded  foes. 
While  the  leaders  might  be  persuaded,  by  the  arguments  and  solici- 
tations of  their  French  friends,  to  take  this  risk,  the  majority  of  the 
people  may  have  been  unwilling  to  abandon  their  secure  retreat  and 
their  cultivated  fields.  To  overcome  this  hesitation,  it  would  be  nat- 
ural also  for  the  chiefs  to  employ  some  artifice.  Of  this  species  of 
management,  to  which  the  leading  men  among  the  Hurons  and  Iro- 
quois were  wont  to  resort  in  dealing  with  their  self-willed  but  credu- 
lous people,  many  curious  and  amusing  examples  are  related  by  the 


The  Fall  of  Hochelaga,  9 

early  missionaries.  In  the  present  instance,  it  would  seem  that  an 
appeal  was  made  to  the  reverence  with  which  the  memory  of  their 
deceased  head-chief  was  regarded.  A  rude  image  of  him  was  set 
up  with  much  formality,  and  a  report  was  circulated  of  a  death-bed 
prediction  made  by  him  concerning  it.  Early  in  the  morning  after 
its  erection  the  image  was  found  to  have  preternaturally  changed  its 
position,  and  to  be  gazing  in  the  direction  in  which  the  great  chief, 
in  his  lifetime,  had  desired  that  his  people  should  go.  This  moni- 
tion from  the  dead  was  effectual,  and  the  emigration  at  once  took 
place.  The  legend,  as  told  in  after  times,  assumed  naturally  a  more 
lively  and  striking  cast ;  but  in  its  leading  outlines  it  is  intelligible 
and  credible  enough.  Its  chief  interest,  however,  resides  in  the  fact 
that  it  proves  beyond  question  the  existence  of  a  belief  among  the 
Wyandots  of  the  present  day  that  their  ancestors  came  to  the  west, 
at  no  very  distant  period,  from  the  vicinity  of  Quebec. 

The  casual  references  which  are  made  to  this  subject  in  the  Jesuit 
"Relations"  deserve  to  be  noticed.  In  general  the  missionaries, 
while  describing  with  much  particularity  the  customs  and  religious 
rites  of  the  Indians,  and  in  fact  every  matter  which  seemed  to  have 
any  bearing  on  the  work  of  their  conversion,  took  no  pains  to  record 
any  facts  relating  to  the  early  history  of  the  tribes.  Only  a  casual 
allusion  apprises  us  that  the  former  residence  of  the  Hurons  near 
the  coast  was  spoken  of  among  them  as  a  well-known  fact.  The 
"  Relations  "  for  1636  contain  a  full  and  detailed  account  of  the 
Huron  nation  by  Brebeuf, — an  admirable  work,  from  which  our 
knowledge  of  that  people  in  their  primitive  state  is  chiefly  drawn. 
In  speaking  of  their  festivities,  he  ascribes  the  origin  of  some  of 
their  dances  to  the  teaching  of  a  certain  being,  "  rather  a  giant  than 
a  man,"  whom  the  people  encountered  at  the  time  when  they  lived 
by  the  seaside  {lors  qicils  habitoient  sur  le  bord  de  la  mcr). 

The  other  allusion  seems,  at  the  first  glance,  to  bear  a  different 
interpretation.  It  has  been  quoted  by  Gallatin  and  others  as  afford- 
ing evidence  that  the  people  whom  Cartier  encountered  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  were  Iroquois ;  but  a  careful  consideration  of  the  facts, 
in  the  light  of  recent  information,  shows  that  this  inference  cannot 
properly  be  drawn  from  it.  Father  Le  Jeune  writes  from  the  vicin- 
ity of  Quebec  in  1636  :  "  I  have  often  sailed  from  Quebec  to  Three 
Rivers.  The  country  is  fine  and  very  attractive.  The  Indians 
showed  me  some  places  where  the  Iroquois  formerly  cultivated  the 
land."  These  Indians  were  of  the  Algonkin  race,  and  their  state- 
ment, which  we  need  not  question,  merely  shows  that  their  immediate 
predecessors  in  that  locality  were  Iroquois.  If,  as  the  traditions  of 
the  Hurons  aflfirm,  the  flight  of  their  ancestors  from  their  eastern 
abode  was  caused  by  the  attacks  of  the  Iroquois,  we  may  be  certain 


lo  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

It  these  conquerors  did  not  leave  the  deserted  country  vacant. 
Their  first  proceeding  would  be  to  assume  possession  of  it,  and  to 
plant  colonies  at  favorable  points.  This  was  their  custom  in  all 
their  conquests.  An  Iroquois  colony  was  thus  established  at  Sha- 
mokin,  now  Sunbury,  in  Pennsylvania,  after  the  Delawarcs  were  sub- 
dued ;  and  other  settlements  secured  the  territories  which  the  con- 
federacy acquired  in  northern  Ohio.  Thus  it  would  seem  probable 
that,  after  the  flight  of  the  Hurons,  the  Iroquois  held  their  lands 
along  the  northern  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence  for  a  considerable 
time.  At  length,  however,  the  annoyance  and  loss  from  the  inces- 
sant at^"^cks  of  the  surrounding  Algonkins  became  so  intolerable  as 
to  make  these  distant  outposts  not  worth  keeping.  Their  abandon- 
ment apparently  did  not  long  precede  the  arrival  of  Champlain,  who, 
as  is  well  known,  found  the  Hurons  and  the  Algonkins  united  in 
strict  alliance,  and  engaged  in  a  deadly  warfare  with  the  Iroquois. 

On  another  occasion.  Chief  Mandorong  gave  me  an  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  war  between  the  Hurons  and  the  Iroquois,  which  caused 
his  people  to  leave  their  eastern  abode.  The  two  communities  were 
living  near  each  other,  beside  the  mountain  from  which  their  ances- 
tors had  issued.  They  dwelt  on  opposite  sides  of  the  mountain,  and 
apparently  of  the  river,  though  the  latter  point  was  left  in  some 
obscurity  in  the  narrative.  To  prevent  dififerences,  the  chiefs  had 
forbidden  the  people  of  the  two  tribes  to  intermarry.  An  Iroquois 
warrior  at  length  transgressed  this  interdict,  and  married  a  Huron 
woman  She  Incurred  his  anger  by  some  misconduct,  and  was  killed 
by  him.  The  chiefs  of  the  two  tribes  held  a  conference,  and  agreed 
that,  as  she  seemed  to  have  merited  her  fate,  her  husband  should  go 
unpunished.  This  decision,  however,  did  not  satisfy  her  kinsmen. 
One  of  them  went  secretly  into  the  country  of  the  Iroquois,  and  killed 
a  man  of  that  people.  Thereupon  a  war  arose  between  the  two 
nations.  Many  conflicts  took  place,  in  which  the  Hurons  generally 
had  the  best.  At  last,  however,  by  an  act  of  treachery,  the  Iroquois 
got  possession  of  the  Huron  town  during  a  truce,  when  the  men 
were  absent  from  it,  holding  a  council  elsewhere,  and  killed  all  the 
women  and  children.  When  the  Huron  warriors  returned  and  found 
their  wives  and  children  massacred,  their  grief  and  wrath  knew  no 
bounds.  They  pursued  and  overtook  the  murderers  (as  the  chief 
affirmed)  and  slew  them  to  the  last  man.  They  then  quitted  the 
mountain  near  Quebec,  and  scattered  themselves  over  the  country. 
This  statement  may  be  taken  as  sufficient  evidence  that  what  tliey 
had  suffered  was  really  an  overwhelming  defeat.  That  this  was  the 
belief  of  the  chief  was  evident  from  what  he  immediately  added,  — 
that  there  were  some  families  which  had  not  been  included  in  the 
massacre,  having  been  in  the  woods,  hunting  or  otherwise  engaged, 


The  Fall  of  Hochelaga,  1 1 

at  the  time,  and  from  them  all  the  Wyandots  are  descended.  He 
further  said  that  the  missionaries  were  in  the  country  at  the  time 
of  the  final  dispersion,  though  not  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  It 
was  evident  that  he  looked  upon  the  war  as  a  secular  strife,  which 
began  in  early  times  in  the  far  east,  and  was  fought  out  through 
many  years  and  successive  stages  of  westward  flight  and  pursuit, 
until  it  culminated  near  Lake  Huron  in  the  terrible  conflicts  wit- 
nessed and  recorded  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  several  of  whom 
perished  in  its  final  agonies.  If  we  wish  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 
incident"  which,  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  preceded,  accompanied, 
and  followed  the  fall  of  Hochelaga,  we  have  only  to  turn  to  the 
pages  in  which  Parkman,  in  his  work  already  referred  to,  has  related 
the  closing  scenes  of  the  same  contest. 

The  traditions  preserved  by  Peter  Clarke  in  his  book  accord  in 
general  with  those  related  to  me  by  Chief  Joseph  White,  di^ering 
just  enough  to  show  that  the  two  narratives  are  the  independent  tes- 
timonies of  honest  reporters.  "  P'rom  traditional  accounts,"  writes 
Clarke,  "the  Wyandots  once  inhabited  a  country  northeastward 
from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  or  somewhere  along  the  gulf 
coast,  before  they  ever  met  with  the  French  or  any  European  adven- 
turers." At  a  later  period,  "during  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth 
century,"  as  he  thinks, — though  his  chronology  must  be  mainly 
conjectural, — a  rupture  took  place  between  the  Wyandots  and  the 
Iroquois  (whom  Clarke  generally  designates  by  the  name  of  their 
largest  tribe,  the  Senecas),  "while  they  were  peaceably  sojourning 
together,  in  separate  villages,  within  the  vicinity  of  what  is  now  Mon- 
treal." "  At  this  time,"  he  adds,  "  and  back  to  an  unknown  period, 
the  Iroquois  and  Wyandots  had  always  dwelt  in  the  same  region, 
where  their  abodes  and  hunting-grounds  were  conterminous."  There 
are,  he  says,  conflicting  accounts  of  the  cause  which  led  to  the  quar- 
rel. "  Some  say  that  it  commenced  about  a  Seneca  maiden  and  a 
chief's  son."  The  wrongs  of  the  maiden  led  to  the  assassination  of 
a  Seneca  chief  by  a  Wyandot  warrior.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  and  a 
strong  evidence  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  narrative,  or  at  least  of  the 
narrators,  that  both  Clarke  and  White  admitted  that  their  own  people 
were  in  fault  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  The  result  is  told  alike 
in  both  narratives,  but  with  more  particularity  by  Clarke.  The 
Wyandots  "  broke  up  their  villages  and  journeyed  westward,"  until 
they  reached  Niagara.  Here  they  remained  a  considerable  time, 
and  then  "  migrated  northward  to  where  the  city  of  Toronto  now 
stands."  Thence  after  a  time,  in  fear  of  the  Iroquois,  they  retreated 
still  further  to  the  north,  until  they  reached  Lake  Huron.  Here 
they  found  game  abundant,  and  abode  for  many  years.  And  here 
they  were  joined  by  a  band  of  their  own  people,  who  had  remained 


1 2  journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

on  the  Ottawa  River.  These  doubtless  composed  that  branch  of 
the  Huron  nation  which  had  separated  from  the  Tionontates  on  the 
overthrow  of  the  Hochelagan  dominion,  and  had  retreated  from 
Montreal  up  the  Ottawa  River.  It  was  along  this  river  that  Cham- 
plain  and  the  French  missionaries  followed  the  traces  of  these  fu'^i- 
tives  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  From  this  northern  refuge 
on  the  Georgian  Bay,  Champlain,  with  a  party  of  his  soldiers,  led  a 
Huron  army  into  the  region  south  of  Lake  Ontario,  on  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  Iroquois,  which  ended  disastrously.  Had  the  result 
been  otherwise  and  the  Iroquois  been  crushed,  as  the  assailants  ex- 
pected, the  course  of  North  American  history  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  widely  deflected.  The  attack  of  Champlain  and  his  red- 
skin allies  was  soon  terribly  avenged  by  the  Iroquois  warriors,  whose 
raids  broke  up  the  Huron  towns.,  and  kept  back  the  French  settle- 
ments for  more  than  a  century,  while  the  English  colonies  were 
gathering  strength. 

The  flight  of  the  Tionontatds,  first  to  Michilimackinac  and  thence 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Detroit,  is  narrated  by  Clarke  at  some  length. 
In  connection  with  the  latter  movement  is  mentioned  "  the  last  of 
the  ancient  line  of  head-chiefs  or  kings  of  pure  Wyandot  blood, 
named  Suts-tau-ra-tse."  He  is  spoken  of  as  living  about  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  is  said  to  have  died  at  a  g''e'^c  age  in 
its  last  decade.  He  was  probably  the  grandson  of  the  King  Sasta- 
retsi  of  my  friend  Mandorong's  legend  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  he  was  the  person  who  was  seen  in  his  boyhood  by  Charlevoix, 
when  that  historian  visited  Detroit  as  the  guest  of  the  commandant, 
Tonti,  in  1721.  He  describes  a  great  meeting  of  the  neighboring 
tribes,  Huron  and  Algonkin,  which  was  called  by  the  commandant  to 
receive  a  message  from  the  governor.  "  Sastaretsi,"  writes  Charle- 
voix, "whom  our  Frenchmen  call  the  king  of  the  Hurons  (and  who 
is  in  fact  the  hereditary  chief  of  the  Tionontates,  who  are  the  true 
Hurons),  was  present.  But  as  he  is  still  a  minor,  he  came  merely 
for  the  form.  His  uncle,  who  governs  for  him  and  who  is  styled  the 
Regent,  spoke  in  his  stead,  in  the  quality  of  the  orator  of  the  nation. 
When  a  council  is  held,  the  honor  of  speaking  for  all  the  tribes  is 
commonly  conferred  upon  the  Hurons." 

On  another  occasion  this  noted  name  turned  up  unexpectedly.  In 
obtaining  from  my  Iroquois  friends  a  list  of  the  Indian  tribes  with 
which  they  were  acquainted,  I  received  from  them  two  names  for 
the  Tionontates,  in  addition  to  the  latter  name,  which  was  merely  a 
local  designation.  One  of  the  names  was  Wanat,  the  Iroquois  form 
of  Wandat ;  the  other  was  Sastaretsi.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  an 
Indian  tribe,  of  the  Huron-Iroquois  stock,  to  be  named  from  its 
principal  hereditary  chief.  A  common  name  of  the  Mohawks  was 
the  plural  form  of  the  title  of  their  leading  chief,  Tckarihoken. 


The  Fall  of  Hockelaga, 


13 


An  important  confirmation  of  the  tradition  received  from  the 
Anderdon  Wyandots  is  furnished  by  a  high  authority.  That  accom- 
plished ethnologist  and  careful  investigator,  the  late  Sir  Daniel 
Wilson,  contributed  to  the  transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Canada  for  1884  an  admirable  paper,  entitled  "The  Huron-Iroquois, 
—  a  Typical  Race."  This  paper  is  reprinted  in  his  latest  volume, 
"  The  Lost  Atlantis  and  other  Ethnographic  Studies,"  and  should 
be  consulted  by  every  student  of  this  interesting  subject.  He  had 
visited  the  Hurons  of  Lorette,  near  Quebec,  already  referred  to,  —  a 
small  band  of  some  three  hundrc^  half-castes,  descended  from  Huron 
refugees  who  found  an  asylum  in  that  quarter  after  the  destruction 
of  their  towns  in  the  west  by  the  Iroquois.  In  referring  to  the 
story  told  me  by  the  Anderdon  chief,  Joseph  White,  Sir  Daniel 
Wilson,  adds:  "The  late  Huron  chief,  Tahourenche,  or  Francois 
Xavier  Picard,  communicated  to  me  the  same  legendary  tradition  of 
the  indigenous  origin  of  his  people  ;  telling  me,  though  with  a  smile, 
that  they  came  out  of  the  side  of  a  mountain  between  Quebec  and 
the  great  sea.  He  connected  this  with  other  incidents,  all  pointing 
to  a  traditional  belief  that  the  northern  shores  of  the  lower  St. 
Lawrence  were  the  original  home  of  the  race  ;  and  he  spoke  of  cer- 
tain ancient  events  in  the  history  of  his  people  as  having  occurred 
when  they  lived  beside  the  big  sea." 

All  these  facts,  taken  together,  seem  to  lead  to  conclusions  of 
great  importance  with  regard  to  the  value  of  traditional  evidence. 
It  is  plain  that  until  recently  this  evidence  has  been  seriously  under- 
valued. Our  students  of  history  have  been  too  generally  a  book- 
worshipping  race,  unwilling  to  accept  any  testimony  with  regard  to 
ancient  events  which  is  not  found  in  some  contemporary  page,  either 
written  or  printed.  It  is  not  half  a  century  since  a  distinguished 
English  author,  eminent  both  as  a  statesman  and  as  a  philologist, 
pronounced  the  opinion  that  no  tradition  can  be  trusted  which  is 
more  than  a  hundred  years  old.  At  the  time  when  this  opinion  was 
put  forth  by  Sir  George  C.  Lewis,  many  voyagers  and  missionaries 
in  the  Pacificf  Islands  were  accumulating  traditional  testimony  of 
vast  extent  and  varied  origin,  which  is  now  admitted  on  all  hands  to 
prove  the  occurrence  of  events  that  must  have  taken  place  at  suc- 
cessive periods  extending  over  the  last  two  thousand  years.  The 
"  Brief  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People,"  by  Prof.  W.  D.  Alexander 
of  Honolulu,  published  in  1891  "by  order  of  the  Board  of  Education 
of  the  Hawaiian  Kingdom,"  recounts  as  unquestionable  facts  many 
voyages,  migrations,  battles,  royal  and  priestly  accessions,  marriages, 
and  deaths  which  have  occurred  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  other 
groups,  from  the  eleventh  century  to  our  own  time.  At  the  other 
extremity  of  the  great  ocean,  the  "  Polynesian  Society,"  established 


14  journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

at  Wellington,  New  Zealand,  has  published  in  its  excellent  quarterly 
journal  communications  from  able  contributors  relating  to  various 
island  histories,  and  carrying  these  back,  with  the  aid  of  numerous 
mutually  confirmatory  genealogies,  for  many  centuries,  with  unhesi- 
tating belief  in  their  general  truth.  In  this  way  the  history  of  the 
peopling  of  the  vast  Polynesian  region,  extending  over  a  space 
larger  than  North  America,  and  covering  at  least  twenty  centuries, 
is  gradually  becoming  known  to  us  as  surely,  if  not  as  minutely,  as 
that  of  the  countries  of  Europe  during  the  same  period. 

The  question  naturally  arises  whether  we  may  not  hope  to  recover 
the  history  of  aboriginal  America  for  at  least  the  same  length  of 
time.  The  facts  now  recorded  will  show  that  the  few  dispersed 
members  of  the  Huron-Iroquois  stock  retain  to  this  day,  after  many 
wanderings,  clear  traditions  of  a  time,  which  cannot  have  been  less 
than  four  centuries  ago,  when  their  ancestors  dwelt  on  the  northern 
coast  of  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf.  The  historical  traditions  of  the 
Delawares,  retained  in  memory  by  their  famous  Picture  Record, 
styled  the  Walam  Oltim,  or  Red  Score,  which  has  been  carefully 
published  and  admirably  elucidated  by  Dr.  Brinton  in  his  volume, 
"  The  Lenapd  and  their  Legends,"  seem  to  go  back  for  more  than 
thrice  that  period.  And  the  conclusions  derived  from  these  sources 
have  been  lately  confirmed  and  enlarged  by  a  series  of  important 
investigations  relating  to  almost  every  branch  of  the  fifty-eight  abo- 
riginal stocks  vvhiv.h  have  been  found  to  exist  between  Mexico  and 
the  Arctic  Ocean.  In  these  studies,  in  which,  besides  the  names 
already  mentioned,  those  of  many  members  of  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology, the  Peabody  Mu:^eura,the  Hemenway  Expedition,  the  Royal 
Society  of  Canada,  and  its  affiliated  Associations,  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society,  the  American  Foil:  Lore  Society,  and  several  histori- 
cal societies,  have  been  honorably  conspicuous,  we  have  the  gratifying 
earnest  of  large  future  gains  to  historical  and  ethnological  science 
which  are  to  be  expected  from  this  soarce.  We  have  every  reason 
to  feel  assured  that  in  the  three  hundrea  Indian  reservations  and 
recognized  bands  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  with  populations 
varying  from  less  than  a  hundred  to  more  than  twenty  thousand, 
and  comprising  now  many  men  and  women  of  good  education  and 
superior  intelligence,  there  are  mines  of  tradition  d  lore,  ready  to 
yield  returns  of  inestimable  value  to  well-qualified  and  sympathetic 
explorers. 

Horatio  Hale. 

Note.  —  This  paper  was  prepared  for  the  World's  Congress  of  Anthropology, 
held  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  Chicago,  in  August  and  September, 
1893,  and  will  appear  in  the  volume  of  Proceeding^  of  the  Congress. 


